2020-09-09 17:00:59
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The Least Common Denominator V.V Hidden Variable
"Why are you bowing?"I immediately straightened my back at his curious observation. I really have to stop doing that."It's a sign of respect, sir," I explained as I raised my head to meet his confused grey eyes. At the edge of my periphery, Olivia quickly bowed as soon as my explanation came from my lips."Never heard of that kind of behavior in my long years of living," the old man wondered while rubbing the scruff of his grey beard. "And stop calling me 'Sir.' I am Backus. I'm no Imperial Dog.""As you wis
The Least Common Denominator Interlude III: Arya
*Knock Knock!*"Arya?"In the middle of her bed, Arya laid as still as a corpse; blood pooling into her bedsheets as red stained her naked form. If one were to see such a sight, one might assume that she'd already gone from the world of the living.*Knock Knock Knock!*"Arya?!" the male voice from outside her room shouted as he repeatedly banged on the unyielding door. "Open this fucking door, you lazy bitch!"
The Least Common Denominator VI.I Solve for X
*CLANG!*The sounds of industry echoed through the blistering air as I hammered down on my new project. It had been at least a week since I had last spoken to Backus. After a few precious seconds of forethought, I realized that it was kind of in the realm of possibility that I can lead a somewhat decent resistance front. I had the know-how through some of the games I've played throughout the years. And if I applied what I knew of modern tactics in this fledgling rebellion of ours, I can actually see it working out in our favor."Sis," a voice shook me out of my musings as Olivia called for my attention. "Am I doing this right?"
The Least Common Denominator VI.II Solve for X
"SIS!"I could barely hear Olivia speak as the deafening blast of the miniature explosion still rang in my ears. I'd barely gotten away with but a scratch as the rifle all but turned to shrapnel just as soon as I'd let go of it.What happened?!"What happened?!" I felt a hand on my shoulder as I turned my head behind me, Olivia greeting me with a worried expression bordering on panic and resolve. "Are you okay?!"I absently nodded as my eyes roamed back to the disastrous prototype that almost took my right han
The Least Common Denominator VI.III Solve for X
The chilling realization of my responsibility hit me like a tidal wave crashing against the concrete ports of my hometown; washing over me in a way that almost led me to commit suicide before I even graduated. I have no plan... no idea on how to handle a possible bloody situation beyond applying basic triage... I'm a just fucking nerd with next to no experience in leading beyond maybe calling the shots in a MOBA that I used to play.AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"Sis?" Shit. Okay, okay... Calm down, me... Make yourself presentable.<
The Least Common Denominator VI.IV Solve for X
I was shaking.My ears rang as I steadied myself from where I stood. A loud bang... The sound of compressed air reverberating through my chest..."D-Did it..." I muttered as I felt something support me on my side. "'L-Livia?""The rifle, sis," she began, her steps small as she accommodated to mine. "Something came out of it."I shook my head as my ears slowly stopped ringing. With a heave, I stood on my own two feet, leaving my little sister's grasp in favor of looking around the area.
The Least Common Denominator VI.V Solve for X
"Amazing..." Backus whispered as he eyed the runes etched onto the metal itself. "Squared angles to provide durability... and is that one of my open circles that I see?" the elder chuckled at his observations. "You certainly have a talent for picking up ideas, young Crimson.""It's not just me. Olivia etched the runes herself," I preened, while at the same time giving my little sister most of the credit. "I just gave her the rough draft. She actually made it work."Which was true. It was her adjustments that made the thing work. At best, I only gave her the idea to use those specific runes. Maybe she could've come up with a much better version if I didn't give any-
The Least Common Denominator VI.VI Solve for X
*CLANG!*And with a resounding clang, the third iteration of the rifle was complete. I watched in fascination as Backus's Essence slowly seeped into the rifle's runes; giving them the rudimentary power to activate and do their jobs."Time to test it, no?" the elder jovially asked, one hand hefting what now amounted to something like a sawed-off shotgun in size. "From what I've seen, it should lessen the energy required of us by a considerable margin."I simply nodded in response, too engrossed on what the old man was doing as he proceeded to aim his rifle down the range. Like an old light bulb, the rifle began gl
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CV.V Cotangent
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
CV.IV Cotangent
"Let's go crazy..."With a borderline manic whisper, I let my imagination cut loose as my hand moved on its own. Traps within traps, earthen sigils meant to sprout at a moment's notice, the world was my oyster as the goodies slowly accumulated with each stroke of my charcoal.'Don't get too carried away, Master.'I know. I'm not dumb enough to overload the thing before it even came to fruition.And that was the biggest risk to such a massive array as well. With so many moving parts, any wrong line or overlapping rune will pretty much make the whole thing explode. I couldn't stress it enough, even to myself. Do not make this thing more complicated than it already is.'And yet here you are having fun with it.'Don't test me, Ica. Or maybe I'll just assert me being
CV.III Cotangent
Fiiiineee... You win, my precious Ica.The stuttering that ensued at the back of my head was like a soothing tune as I looked over my work. The communication arrays were gonna stay, as would the Essence storage runes at strategic parts of the palace grounds. Hmmm.... Wouldn't the communication arrays be two-way anyway? So why even bother with surveillance runes like last time?My hand moved to remove the minor additions I added on the dirt parts of the grounds, leaving me with more space to work with in terms of... well... anything, really. What kind of runes would even work on shaky ground? Dirt couldn't hold anything beyond the basic types of runic arrays. Anything more complex than a three-layered circuit would blow up instantly from the strain. I could maybe run- wait... why not just do that?The charcoal streaked across the outskirts of the pa
CV.II Cotangent
*ruummbbllee...*The sound of a sputtering engine echoed from behind me as I drew up yet another set of circles on the board. While I kind of put the general purpose of the massive multi-circuit array at the back of my head, I really should try and solidify that stuff properly before making the main control array, shouldn't I...'Good thing you remembered that, Master.'I grumbled through the dull pain I was feeling at my knees as I focused myself back on the doodle that was supposed to be a defense system for the palace grounds. It was far too small of a circle, now that I thought about it. The size of the drawing did little to help me ascertain the types of circuits that I drew on it in the first place. Squinting even further, it felt as if I was reading my own handwriting from how jumbled and nonsensical it all looked with hindsight.
CV.I Cotangent
Plans upon plans upon plans. I feel like I'm repeating myself whenever I say that I'm obsessed about things going right, and if not, to have plans to be able to properly react to the failure. Fool-proofing something small was easy. Doing it again for something on the scale of a war, however, was a completely different beast. The number of variables at play, hundreds to even thousands of moving parts to look over and take into account. The time, the weather, morale, even individuals that might have other ideas and could stray from the plans put into place... It was so much to think about that hours or even days of pouring over the relevant information wouldn't be enough to take everything into account into one's plans. And even if you think you somehow managed to achieve this impossibility, there will always be something so monumentally out of left field that could just absolutely destroy any and all plans along with its sub plans and
Interlude XXXIX: Grigori
GRIGORI⬛⬛⬛*RRRRRUUUMMBBLLEEEE!!!! RRRRUUMMBBLEEEE!!!*"What's wrong, Lord Stone?! Finally getting tired in your old age?!"Grigori grumbled in annoyance as he found himself standing his ground in his self-made fortress. Truth be told, the former Prime expected his fight to be over over ten minutes ago. However, he severely underestimated his enemies' hidden tenacity and downright stubbornness."I'm just getting started, kid!" he boisterously replied. "I'm far from being done!"Still, even as he said those words, Grigori was beginning to feel more tired than he initially expected. His reserves were starting to run dry from the constant back and forth that the combined forces of Lords Breeze and Inferno were throwing at him. And that's not to mention the current
CIV.IV Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛"So Lord Iron truly took care of the problem?"Olivia held her breath as she found herself taking in the state that the young Num was just found in. Broken, battered, and bleeding all over, Tesla had clearly taken a beating of a lifetime as her head lolled in her unconscious state, her face marred with cuts and bruises as her white hair was stained brown with dried blood."Damn... I guess the ranking in the Prime Thirteen's not a joke, huh...""Lord Iron's the Sixth, after all. Lady Static's the Thirteenth...""Fuck..." Olivia swore under her breath, her teeth gnashing as she watched the Imperials gawk at her fallen friend. "How the hell do I get her out of there safely..."The warrior Den tuned everything out as she focused on the unenviabl
CIV.III Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*c..crackle....*The faint sound of electricity seemed to crackle from the distance as Olivia stood in the middle of her self-made carnage. The lack of common sense that she was witnessing honestly made her feel more irritated than amused as she slowly walked towards the panicking commander. Olivia had places to be, and possibly someone to save depending on whether or not Tesla could somehow relay to her that she was okay."No matter," she sighed. "You idiots wouldn't understand, I guess.""No!-"*SLASH!*With a quick step, the commander didn't even stand a chance. His sword fell with an unceremonious clang onto the ground as his head rolled off his neck like a piece of meat. Olivia didn't flinch as the idiot's terrified fa
CIV.II Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*CRACKLE! CRACKLE! KRAKATHOOM!*Olivia ran through the streets of Mathema like a woman possessed. Wreaking havoc across every Imperial contingent she came across, lightning followed her path as she relied on Tesla's ever-encompassing presence to deal massive damage on the enemy while despite being outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. She knew that Her Sister would no doubt disapprove of her current tactics, but if it worked, then why bother changing it?"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"*KRAKATHOOM!*"AAHHH!!!!""IT BURNS!"With a smile on her face and blood on her blade, Olivia uttered her Sister's own words out loud as a reminder. Lightning crackled behind her, screams of her fallen enemies saturat
